The real Mrs. Slim Shady is standing up--in divorce court.
Kim Mathers, soon to be Eminem's ex-wife for the second time, filed a response Wednesday in a Detroit court to the divorce proceedings her husband began in early April.
Though the new paperwork provides no insight as to why the couple is divorcing after being remarried for three months, it does highlight what Mathers wants out of the deal. According to court documents, she is seeking financial support, attorney fees and joint legal custody of the pair's 10-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade Scott.
Mathers, who has been a frequent source of inspiration, divine or otherwise, for Eminem's music, is requesting physical custody of Hailie Jade and child support.
Attorney Michael J. Smith filed the papers for Mathers in Macomb County Circuit Court. Some of the other expenses Mathers wants assistance with include the mortgage, insurance and utilities for their Clinton Township, Michigan, home.
Eminem (real name: Marshall Mathers III), 33, and Kim Mathers, 31, were high school sweethearts growing up in Detroit before having Hailie Jade in 1995 and getting hitched for the first time in 1999. The Oscar- and Grammy-winning rapper filed for divorce in 2000, not too long after Kim Mathers reportedly tried to commit suicide, and she responded by suing him for $10 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from his violent song lyrics about her.
Not for the sake of sanity, but for the sake of their daughter, they attempted to stick it out. When a divorce became inevitable in 2001, the couple engaged in a bitter custody dispute. Eminem and Mathers ended up with joint custody of Hailie Jade that time around, and Slim Shady was given liberal visitation rights and ordered to pony up $1,000 a week for child support.
The star-crossed couple announced their reconciliation late last year and retied what is now a very tangled knot in January surrounded by family and close friends in a 110-room mansion in Rochester, Michigan.
Eighty-two days later, Eminem filed for divorce number two. His wife was on the horn with a Detroit radio station (the same station the couple talked to in December to announce they were together again) almost immediately after the papers were drawn up, saying that her husband was using drugs and that it had become an unconquerable problem.
Eminem, who underwent treatment last fall for an addiction to sleeping pills, released a statement the next day to refute Mathers' explanation for the split, calling her allegations "untrue and unfortunate."
Mathers was given probation in 2004 after pleading guilty to possessing a small amount of cocaine and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle while driving. By entering that plea she avoided jail time.
Aside from his make up to break up woes, Eminem has had to go through it all without the pal who served as best man at his most recent nuptials, fellow D12 rapper Proof, who was shot to death last month.
Eminem paid tribute to his late friend Apr. 19 at a funeral attended by more than 2,000 people, and he has talked glowingly about him to both the media and to authorities investigating the circumstances under which Proof and another man, Keith Bender Jr., were shot in a Detroit bar Apr. 11.
Meanwhile, Eminem's platinum-selling posse is standing by to lend support. Speaking to the Associated Press, 50 Cent--who also attended Proof's memorial service--was asked how Eminem was coping in light of his divorce and the death of his good friend.
"He's coming along," the Get Rich or Die Tryin' star said. "He's gonna be all right. I mean, it was definitely a big loss for him. Proof was actually his best friend in the world from forever."